{I am thankful for my church...}
"19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." Ephesians 2:19-22
I have been blessed by 3 bodies of believers in my life... Midway First Baptist Church outside of Hattiesburg, The Baptist Student Union at Ole Miss, and Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham. Each of these families have helped me to grow in my faith and maturity.
Midway created the cornerstone of my faith. From the lessons of Sunday School, to my salvation and baptism, and my first (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) international missions experience. Midway has always been much more than just a place of worship to me... it will always be my church home. The dynamic of Midway has changed over the years... there have been good and bad times in the church. But they have always been my family... from the older ladies that expect a hug and a synopsis of my life since the last they have seen me, to the kids who I have known since birth who are now in college. No matter how far from home I get in life, I know that I have a church home at Midway, and I am incredibly thankful for that.
One of my few regrets about college is that I never found a church home in Oxford. I was however, involved in the Baptist Student Union... and spent a great deal of time there in my 3.5 years in Oxford. My strongest friendships in colleges were cultivated within the relationships I built at the BSU. I will forever be thankful for that ministry and the importance that it had on my life. College is an incredibly impressionable time... and those friendships kept me accountable, gave me alternative plans in a town known for partying and helped to become a more mature person.
Shades Mountain Baptist Church has been an answer to prayer in so many ways. I went to Shades on a Sunday in August of 2006, and never visited another church in Birmingham. It's much different than Midway.... Daddy once told me that he told some folkes at Midway that 'you can stand in parts of Kacey's church, and if you threw a rock, you wouldn't hit the preacher.' It's big... but from day 1 I felt comfortable and it did not take me long to get plugged in. Shades has provided me with amazing friends and a support group that has blessed my life in a million different ways. Shades has given me opportunities to get involved in my community and meet a variety of people. Shades has supported me through the hardest years of my life... and there is not doubt that God placed me there for a reason, with these people, for this season in my life. I am so thankful for that church, and people who make it what it is.
I think it is incredibly important to be a part of a church family. For support, for accountability, for worship, for service... for so many reasons. No matter where you are in life, in a new town, in a new career, in a new station in life... your church family will help you through if you will allow them to. I pray that I represent this support to others in my church families... both past and present.
Love y'all, KC
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